“Sal! What do you have to say about your coach’s public record?” one yelled.

“How do you feel about—“

I waved them off and kept walking toward the field. “Sorry! I have to get to practice!” It was the truth; I wasn’t lying. I did have to get to practice. After four days off with my ribs still the slightest bit sore and my stomach still brushed over with scabs, I had to get back into the swing of things.

My bout with an imaginary virus needed to be over.

“You’re back!” Genevieve, one of my teammates, greeted me as I walked passed her. “Are you feeling any better?”

As long as no one punched me in the rib, I would be. Unfortunately that wasn’t what I could say to her. “Way better. Good job on Friday, by the way.”

She smiled at me and went back to putting on her cleats.

Most of the other girls greeted me as I walked by them, saying that they were happy to see me back or that they’d missed me. It was an exaggeration more than likely but I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. I sure as hell had missed them—at least the field—and Jenny and Harlow for sure. Getting stuck indoors for four days had been torture.

Arms came up from behind to wrap around my neck. “I’m so happy you’re back,” Jenny said into my ear, giving me a squeeze that had me freezing in place.

“I missed you too,” I gripped her forearms before reaching back to smack her in the hip.

She only hugged me harder before pulling away. Standing back, Jenny tipped her head over in the direction of the media, waggling her eyebrows at the same time. “Nuts, huh?”

The fact I had been the one to tell Kulti about the coverage was nuts. The other fact, that Marc was the only one who had any idea that I spent time with the German, was nuts. I wasn’t the type to have secrets—and this one made me feel bad. I was lying to my friends and family, and it wasn’t like I could stop this deep into it.

All I could do was nod, turning around to face her. “Yeah. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Me neither.” Jenny shrugged but quickly reached up to tap my elbow. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “He’s been in a horrible mood since then.” She paused like she was really thinking about what came out of her mouth. “In a worse mood. I overheard him tell Grace she should look into retiring.”

My eyes bugged out.

Jenny just nodded.

Jeez. I thought about it for possibly five more seconds and then shook off my Kulti-related thoughts. I had better things to do.

“Come help me stretch. Everything is tight,” I told her.

She reached up and squeezed my shoulder. It took everything inside of me not to buckle my knees in order to get further away from her. As casually as possible, I stepped out of her reach. Seriously, I wondered if her boyfriend let her get anywhere near his privates.

I was in the middle of wondering if she’d ever given a hand job when I spotted Gardner and Kulti walking toward the field together. Whether they were talking or not, I couldn’t tell, but my teeth responded to the sight of the German.

If he’d apologized the next day or the one after that, I would have forgiven him with only giving him a minimal amount of shit. It wasn’t like he was the first person to make an asshole-ish comment to me in my life, and there was no way he’d be the last. My own mom had said some pretty rude things to me at one point or another, but I always forgave her. I wasn’t even going to get started with the stuff Ceci, my little sister, had said to me over the years, which only reminded me of my upcoming trip back to San Antonio for my dad’s birthday; I still needed to get him something.